Audit: Nasa Far Too Slow To Tighten Shuttle Security

March 30, 1988|By James Fisher, Sentinel Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Six years after President Reagan demanded that space shuttle security be upgraded, NASA has made ''little or no'' significant improvements, according to an internal audit obtained by The Orlando Sentinel.

The space agency's laxity in devising and paying for a better security program ''could subject the shuttle program to unnecessary risk'' of sabotage or security breaches, the agency's Inspector General reported.

A top NASA security official said Tuesday the agency is working to correct deficiencies cited in the report but insisted the shuttles never have been threatened.

The audit, which focused primarily on Kennedy Space Center security, said KSC managers did not perform security reviews after each shuttle flight to monitor the potential for sabotage or disclosure of classified information.

Such reviews are mandatory as a result of Reagan's 1982 declaration that the shuttles were a national resource because they served as the primary launch system for national security and civil government payloads.

''When performed, the security reviews were generally informal and not summarized in writing,'' said the report, which was completed last fall.

Further, KSC did not conduct required annual security effectiveness reviews to evaluate the center's surveillance systems, fences, document security and other measures taken to protect the shuttle program.

The audit also charged that ''key information on shuttle security is too easily available'' at Kennedy because security details ''may be misclassified and too widely disseminated.''

According to the audit, which was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, ''Neither KSC nor NASA headquarters management has devoted significant attention to this program.''

The agency issued a management instruction outlining the basics of a resource protection plan in 1984. However, a formal KSC security plan wasn't approved by the center director until 1986 -- and that wasn't adequately reviewed and coordinated by NASA headquarters, the audit said.

When the audit was concluded, Houston's Johnson Space Center and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., had not even turned in plans to better protect their shuttle resources. They have since been submitted.

At KSC, NASA has allocated only about $2.4 million toward a proposed $20 million security hardware program, NASA managers told the Sentinel. The KSC improvements won't be fully installed for another three years, if then, they said.

Agency officials say the planned improvements are primarily to replace manpower with more automated systems. Managers already have reduced the circulation of security information at KSC and are working on other problems noted in the report, they said.

Security ''was handled at the level we thought was necessary at the time,'' said Chuck Keith, of NASA's spaceflight office in Washington. ''You can always go anyplace and say security needs to be enhanced. How much is enough?''

Said KSC security chief Gary Wistrand: ''Budgeting and all those things are not easy tasks in any organization. It's a matter of making your case, presenting it and getting the money. . . . How long it takes -- if it is too long -- is a judgment call.''

The KSC plan calls for the addition of state-of-the-art equipment -- including security sensors -- around the center's perimeter, closed-circuit television surveillance, more fencing and advanced sensors around all key shuttle working areas.

NASA set aside about $400,000 in fiscal year 1987 and $2 million in the current fiscal year for the improvements, Wistrand said. The agency has budgeted $4 million in its 1989 request now before Congress.

So far money has been spent on testing various remote sensors and the installation of infrared sensors for surveillance helicopters. Other security improvements for the launch pad and other shuttle facilities are under way this year, but won't necessarily be in place in time for the next launch, set for Aug. 4, Wistrand said.

KSC will have enough guards to adequately protect the shuttle for that mission, he said, and ''I don't see we are going to be at great risk.''

The Inspector General's audit charged that managers at NASA headquarters didn't adequately monitor the security program and push the space centers to comply. According to Keith, the policy at headquarters was to give the centers some autonomy in their security planning.

Center managers ''would send us a copy of their security plans and we'd say, 'Gee, that's real interesting','' and wait for the centers to send budget requests to implement the plans, Keith said.

Management of the program should improve this year when oversight is moved from the spaceflight division at NASA headquarters to an office in the management division, he said.

The audit also criticized NASA heaquarters managers for not enforcing requirements for regular security reviews at Kennedy.

Wistrand, who assumed his position in 1986, said he did not know why KSC officials did not conduct security reviews after each shuttle flight.

Kennedy officials have established a formal review process that will begin with the August mission, and have asked for money to conduct annual reviews, according to the written KSC response to the audit.

KSC officials also have taken steps to restrict circulation of security information, Wistrand said.

According to Keith, security information that might have circulated widely a year or more ago probably would be out of date and not useful to potential adversaries.

Keith and Wistrand said part of the reason NASA has not moved quicker to upgrade security is the low number of reported security problems, and intelligence reports that indicate the threat to the shuttles is not great.